Paul Ryan said he would be ‘shocked’ if the Democrats forced a shutdown. He accused them of slowing down negotiations.
Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

After a chaotic week of negotiations and recriminations, Congress may just be able to keep the government open.

Although a White House rollout of proposed tax cuts and yet another stalled effort by House Republicans to repeal Obamacare consumed much of the oxygen, congressional leaders from both parties appeared on the verge of a deal to keep the government running past the Friday deadline and prevent a government shutdown that would take effect on Donald Trump’s symbolic 100th day in office.

Mike Flynn under formal investigation by Pentagon over payments from Russia

Read more

Congressional Republicans are under pressure from the White House to advance a rewritten healthcare bill to replace Obamacare before Trump reaches his 100-day milestone. But on Thursday House Democrats threatened to block legislation that would prevent a shutdown if Republicans scheduled a vote on their healthcare bill over the next few days.

“If Republicans announce their intention to bring their harmful Trumpcare bill to the House floor tomorrow or Saturday, I will oppose a one-week [spending measure] and will advise House Democrats to oppose it as well,” said Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat.

A shutdown remains a remote likelihood, but the last-minute brinkmanship could imperil negotiations in the final hours before the Friday midnight deadline.

“They are in a lose, lose, lose situation,” House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said of the of the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. She added: “The minute they cast that vote they put doo-doo on their shoe, tattoo on their forehead.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that Trump wants a healthcare vote “as soon as possible”, but acknowledged the issue was ultimately in the hands of House Republican leaders. “He [Trump] wants a vote when they have 216 votes, and I feel very good about the progress that’s being made to get to that number,” Spicer told reporters.

It is unlikely that Republicans will bring the healthcare bill to the floor for a vote before the end of the week, although this is still unclear. House Republicans scrambled on Thursday to shore up enough votes for their new replacement plan.

“We’ve not yet made any decisions on a vote,” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said during his weekly briefing with reporters. He added: “We’re going to go when we have the votes.”

Late on Wednesday night, House Republicans unveiled a short-term spending bill to extend negotiations over a budget package for one week and postpone the threat of a shutdown. The federal government is set to run out of money at midnight on Friday without the stopgap measure.

The day before, Republicans unveiled an amendment to their failed healthcare replacement proposal. The new version gained the support of a rebellious group of arch-conservatives who helped derail the legislation last month. But serious questions remain over whether the bill can attract support from moderates, who are wary of language in the bill that would allow states to discriminate against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

A handful of centrist Republicans on Thursday said they were opposed to the plan or had serious concerns with it. Congressman Ryan Costello, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, told reporters he had moved from being undecided to opposed after studying the bill.

Ryan said he would be “shocked” if Democrats forced a shutdown and accused them of slowing down negotiations. “The reason this government funding bill is not ready is Democrats have been dragging their feet,” he said.

As Republican leaders worked to secure an agreement to keep the government open, Trump accused Democrats of holding up the negotiation process over a series of demands they hope to leverage in the spending bill.

“The Democrats want to shut government if we don’t bail out Puerto Rico and give billions to their insurance companies for OCare failure. NO!” Trump wrote in the first of a series of tweets. In later tweets, Trump appeared to suggest that Democrats were refusing to allocate increased funding for border security and defense, something Democrats have repeatedly said they are open to as long as the money isn’t for construction of a border wall – a “non-starter” in their book.

Democrats initially wanted assurances that the government would continue to fund healthcare subsidy payments, known as cost-sharing reductions. The White House had threatened to withhold the payments as a bargaining chip to try to extract funding for a border wall. Administration officials changed tack on Wednesday and agreed to continue the payments. Democrats have also pushed for relief for Puerto Rico as it restructures its debt to avoid bankruptcy.

Democrats dismissed the tweetstorm as out of touch with the current status of negotiations.

“These shutdown tweets are desperate, unhinged, and show a startling lack of awareness for where the negotiations actually are,” said Matt House, a spokesman for Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

At a press conference later on Thursday, Schumer said “good progress” had been made toward reaching a bipartisan deal on a spending package and sounded optimistic that lawmakers would avoid a shutdown.

Republicans, despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, need Democratic votes to pass an omnibus spending bill. Democrats are leveraging their support to block efforts to dismantle the healthcare law and protect other priorities.

Earlier this week Trump signaled that he was easing off on his demand for funding for a border wall, which Democrats welcomed as a sign that they could move forward with the negotiations. And on Wednesday, the White House said that it would continue to make payments for a critical component of the Affordable Care Act.

“Democrats and the American people have welcomed the president’s decision to back off his threats on both the wall and defunding health care,” Schumer told reporters. “The president was insisting on these things which he knew were non-starters for Democrats. We remained unified and the president has softened his stance. We welcome that cooperation.”